Klub

The Head of the River

Name: The Head of the River
Address: Saint Aldate's, Oxford, England, GB

Doporučuje 47 místních,

Tipy místních

Former Member

March 19, 2021

The oldest pub in Oxford

Michael

July 30, 2020

A large and quite chilled pub, just beside the river – would highly recommend trying their fish and chips! (15-minute walk away)

Penny & Sinclair

November 8, 2019

The Eagle and Child, nicknamed The Bird and Baby, is a pub in St Giles' Street, Oxford, England, owned by St. John's College, Oxford and operated by Mitchells & Butlers as a Nicholson's pub. The pub had been part of an endowment belonging to University College since the 17th century. It has associations with the Inklings writers' group which included J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. In 2005, 25 other pubs had the same name. The Eagle and Child from directly in front of the building, in St Giles Street. A small, narrow building, the pub reputedly served as the lodgings of the Chancellor of the Exchequer during the English Civil War (1642–49), when Oxford was the Royalist capital. The landmark served as a pay house for the Royalist army, and pony auctions were held in the rear courtyard. These claims are inconsistent with the earliest date usually given for construction of the pub, 1650, and the fact that the pub lies outside the city walls may also give some cause for doubt. The first record of the pub's name is from 1684, and is said to derive from the crest of the Earl of Derby. The image is said to refer to a story of a noble-born baby having been found in an eagle's nest. An alternative explanation for the name of the pub is from the star constellation 'Aquila and Antinous'. The constellation was named by the Roman emperor Hadrian after his boy lover Antinous drowned the Nile in 130. The constellation's first known depiction was in 1536 on a celestial globe by the German mathematician and cartographer Caspar Vopel (1511–61); it was shown again in 1551 on a globe by Gerardus Mercator. Tycho Brahe listed it as a separate constellation in his star catalogue of 1602 and it remained widely accepted into the 19th century, when it was eventually remerged with Aquila. The pub's long-standing nickname is the Bird and Baby, although other variants such as the "Fowl and Foetus" have been used. The pub had been part of an endowment belonging to University College since the 17th century. The college placed it on the market for £1.2 million in December 2003, saying that it needed to rebalance its property portfolio. It was bought by the nearby St John's College, which also owns the Lamb and Flag pub opposite.